This invention relates to a method of reducing prolonged numbness experienced by dental and medical patients after being injected with local infiltration anaesthetic to reduce the pain associated with procedures such as drilling, removing a tooth, mouth surgery, or other treatments.
In order to drill into or pull a decayed or infected tooth or perform work on gums or muscles in the mouth, it is a common practice to first inject a quantity of anaesthetic, such as liquid Novocain, Carbocaine, lidocaine or other appropriate anaesthetic into the mouth tissue at the gum area surrounding the tooth. The injected anaesthetic reduces the pain associated with the drilling or pulling process. Epinephrine may also be included with the anaesthetic to reduce or stop bleeding.
The injected anaesthetic produces a numbness or lack of feeling that often lasts for a period longer than necessary for treatment and up to about three hours afterward. The present invention concerns a procedure to reduce the period of numbness from about three hours down to approximately one-half hour. In carrying out the invention, the dentist places a tablet of essentially pure niacin (vitamin B3) in the patient's mouth and against the gum area where the anaesthetic was injected. This placement of the tablet takes place only after the dentist or physician has finished the work or treatment. The drilling, filling, surgery, etc., are carried out in conventional fashion prior to placement of the niacin tablet against the numbed area.
Niacin is known to be a vasodilator and serves to widen or enlarge vessels and capillaries that carry blood within the human body. When a niacin tablet is placed against a gum or other area previously injected with anaesthetic, it is believed that the niacin contacts and enlarges the blood vessels in the numbed area, so that the flow of blood through the numbed area is thereby increased, whereby the blood is better enabled to carry the anaesthetic away from the numbed area. New blood replaces the anaesthetic-carrying blood so that after a relatively short period of time the patient no longer experiences the numb feeling.
It is necessary that the niacin remain in contact with the previously numbed area of the mouth for a sufficient time to expand the blood vessels and maintain them in an expanded condition while new blood is replacing the anaesthetic-absorbed blood. Usually, the patient has to hold the niacin tablet against the number area for the time required for it to dissolve, usually at least 10 minutes. After the niacin tablet is dissolved, its effect on the blood vessels continues, because some niacin in solution form remains in the blood stream for a short time.